Iraq tells UN: troops should stay

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Iraq's new Foreign Minister has told the United Nations Security Council that "any premature departure of international troops would lead to chaos and the real possibility of a civil war".

"This would cause a humanitarian crisis and provide a foothold for terrorists to launch their evil campaign in our country and beyond our borders," Hoshiya Zebari said.

Although he did not refer specifically to Australian troops, his speech to the council came just hours after President George Bush said Mark Latham's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq would be a "disastrous decision".

Mr Zebari also said there was no need to change the draft UN resolution to include a date by which foreign troops should withdraw from Iraq.

Some council members have been pushing for changes in the resolution, including the insertion of a date by which the US-led multinational force should leave.

Mr Zebari said a fixed date would be unhelpful, and the current draft of the resolution, which allows for the continued presence of foreign troops, was "quite adequate".

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France, China, Russia and Germany have argued that the draft resolution does not give Iraq full sovereignty, because its government does not have the final say over US-led troops.

But Mr Zebari said Iraq's interim government did not want veto power over the actions of the multinational force. It does, however, want the right to ask the US-led force to leave and "a say in endorsing" major operations, "and we urge this to be reflected in the new resolution".

He said Iraq sought an arrangement that "neither compromises the sovereignty of the interim government, nor the right of the multinational force to defend itself".

Mr Zebari said Iraqis were grateful to coalition forces who helped liberate them from "the persecutions of Saddam Hussein's regime" but they now wanted the Security Council to pass a resolution and remove "the label of occupation" from Iraq.

The resolution should invest "full authority" in the interim government to "run Iraq's affairs, make its own decisions and have authority over Iraq's security matters".

The French ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, agreed that a "sizeable military presence" was essential to Iraq's security, but continued to seek changes in the resolution.

"The co-existence of a multinational force and the new government is not mutually exclusive but the relationship between the two should be made explicitly clear," he said.

Germany's representative, Gunter Pleuger, said the draft resolution was an "honest attempt" to achieve sovereignty, but there was "still room for improvement".

He said the inclusion of a deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops was an "important signal", as was the "clear-cut right" of the Iraqis to ask troops to leave.

China's representative, Wang Guangya, also pressed for "full sovereignty" for Iraq, including the "termination of the military occupation".